Last updated 05:45, Friday, 19 September 2008

I WOULD like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the staff of all Cumbria’s secondary schools for their continued hard work and congratulate them on their excellent end of year results. THANK-YOU for Steve Matthews’s review of Mary Scott-Parker’s Carlisle Grammar School (The Cumberland News, September 5). NOW that the Liberal Democrats on Cumbria County Council have at last done the decent thing and supported the Labour Party, which is, after all, the biggest party on the council, can we expect the same from them on Carlisle City Council? I WAS incensed to hear that it is proposed that motorists should have to pay to park in Rickergate in Carlisle.HAVING read the article ‘£250million Canadian investment hinges on airport’ and the associated editorial comment (The Cumberland News, September 5,) it immediately raised a number of questions in my mind and, I would have thought, should have raised these same questions in the reports. n HAD anyone heard of World Biofibre Technology Inc. before it hit the front page of The Cumberland News with promises of £250million to invest in Cumbria – if only there was an airport? Editor’s comment: n Our first contact with Peter Jardine came in an e-mail letter to the editor in which he briefly outlined his company’s plans for investment in west Cumbria and how an airport would be crucial to those plans.

This year has seen yet another steady rise in A Level, GCSE and Key Stage 3 results and is testament to the dedication and professionalism of our headteachers, teachers and support staff.

Our primary schools are already some of the best performers in the country and have again shown further improvement at Key Stages 1 and 2. Congratulations to all concerned.

With the establishment of the Performance Improvement Board earlier in the year, and the subsequent media coverage this attracted, it has been a challenging time for all our colleagues working in and with schools – which makes these results even more of an achievement for everyone involved.

This is an exciting time for education in Cumbria and we are all committed to providing the best possible education for every child and young person across the county.

We will continue to face challenging times as our school reorganisation programme continues and, working together, I am confident that with the high quality of school leadership and teaching, we can meet these challenges head on and continue to raise standards of education for children in Cumbria.

MOIRA SWANNCorporate director for children’s servicesCumbria County Council

But there is an error in the very first sentence, where the headmaster is referred to as Vincent ‘Jankers’ Dunstan. VJD’s first name was surely Victor.

How can I remember that, 50-odd years after I sat at his feet as a young CGS pupil – at a time when we assuredly did not call our teachers anything but ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss’? Well, it may be because of a hymn we regularly sang in school assembly.

‘The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now: a royal diadem adorns the mighty victor’s brow.’

As you may imagine, this was bellowed out with much enthusiasm and well-nigh uncontrollable mirth by the assembled lads.

To this day, I am unable to sing that hymn without trying to suppress a smile.

LEONARD SCOTTCapon Tree RoadBrampton

They have kept the minority Conservative Party in power for years, leading to both councils effectively being run by default.

JOHN DALTONEmpire RoadCarlisle

It was stated “one hour is not enough” (The Cumberland News, August 15). Who has decided this for us?

One hour is ideal to visit the Civic Centre or go to the library without paying to park in The Lanes.

It leaves also time to visit shops in the area of necessities.

It keeps traffic flowing, enabling many more shoppers to visit the city.

I certainly won’t pay to park.

The cost of goods is rising enough. I will shop elsewhere.

MRS DIANA CRADDUCKGilbert RoadCummersdaleCarlisle

How can a business (World Biofibre Technology Inc), while promoting its own green credentials regarding the building of a green manufacturing plant (to be applauded), be so reliant on the expansion of an airport and the movement of a huge lorry park and office complex, from its present industrial site next to a motorway, to a site of historic importance in the country which is six or seven miles away from that motorway?

This is a huge anomoly in itself, not to mention the distance of Mr Jardine’s business – some 50-odd miles away from the proposed airport, which he intimates would be used by himself and his customers.

What about the obvious increase in CO2 emissions that all this would create?

After the shortest of time on the internet I find that Mr Jardine was welcomed as a member of the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR) in 2005.

This group discusses, among other things, the cause/effects of global warming/climate change and seeks to find solutions to global problems such as this.

At the February 2005 meeting of this group, Mr Jardine made a speech which highlighted one of the causes of climate change as fossil fuel use, of which oil is one.

Is not oil used to power cars, lorries and aeroplanes? How does Mr Jardine justify supporting airport and HGV transport expansion whilst extolling the green virtues of his company?

After a more lengthy exploration on the internet, I am unable to find any substantive information about Mr Jardine’s company, about any other power stations it runs or staff that it employs.

Considering the amount of money he purports to spend in Cumbria if the airport expansion gets the green light, perhaps the people of Cumbria would like to know a little more about Mr Jardine’s company and his plans for the area.

Without this information we may all be left with the distinct impression that this is a publicity stunt to promote WA Development’s plans for its lorry park (whoops, sorry) airport expansion.

MRS T WHARTONIrthington

With that kind of money to throw around, it would be easy to think that WBT Inc was a major player in the global production of medium density fibreboard from bio waste.

So what is World Biofibre Technology Inc of Unionville, Ontario, Canada?

It’s not easy to answer because WBT Inc does not appear to be listed or registered as a company in Canada and it is not registered on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Using the Canadian version of the Yellow Pages, there appears to be no business listing for it anywhere in Unionville or Ontario, and WBT Inc only appears to employ two people; Gary D Gall who is president of the company and Peter Jardine who is vice president.

Gary D Gall does have a history of involvement in the strawboard manufacturing business, helping to set up two processing plants in Manitoba and Ontario sometime between 1970-1996.

The company was called Isoboard Inc and he retired as president, CEO and a director of Isoboard in 1998. He then continued to provide marketing and financial advice, to the board industry, on a consultancy basis. However he does not appear to have an office.

WBT Inc uses the online services of Jennifer Morita of AVOA [A Virtual Office Assistant] that produces office documents for small business enterprises.

His time now seems to be spent attending conferences such as “China’s boom – implications for investment and trade in forest products and forestry” in January 2006, where he gave a talk on “China’s potential for agri-based composites”.

Peter Jardine seems to represent WBT Inc at lunches hosted by the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR). At one such lunch, in February 2005, he gave a talk entitled “Alternatives – climate change can be reversed.”

One of his recommendations was to change the diet of cows so that they produced less methane.

To summarise: WBT Inc does not appear to be registered or listed as a company in Canada. It does not appear to own or operate any production plants of any kind anywhere in the world. It appears to only employ two people who do not have an office to work from. Its activities seem to be confined to attending conferences and lunches.

So was this article simply the result of sloppy journalism, or is The Cumberland News now happy to ‘spin’ any hype in support of Stobart Air’s proposals for Carlisle airport?

Rather than the case for the airport now being “cast in stone”, as stated in the opinion column, the case is now looking remarkably like the contents of a jelly mould. Extremely shaky, lacking in substance, but easily spoon fed to the gullible.

IAN GRAYNook CottageIrthington

His proposals were put forward in a measured way. We also checked his credentials via the internet and after an early exchange of e-mails Mr Jardine spoke to our reporter.

He is based in Ottawa and says he is planning a series of five manufacturing plants. He hopes the west Cumbrian one will be at the top of the list, the others will be based in Canada and the US.

He is not running a plant at the moment, but was involved in the one built in the 1990s in Manitoba – the first commercially-sized one to produce particle board from wheat straw.

As for questioning his green credentials, he said: “I am an environmentalist, but you have to be practical and you need communications. The aircraft industry is working very hard to make planes more fuel efficient. You cannot function in business without travel.”

His team raises investment money on the international market. Members are discussing this project, even at this early stage, with fund managers in New York – despite continuing fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

Mr Jardine grew up in Orton Road, Carlisle and left for Canada 30 years ago.

He does not know and has never met anyone from the Stobart group.